In our globally-connected environment, it is significant to not confuse a trend with a whim. Whims are short-term, with trending on Twitter hashtags being the digital correspondent of a mayfly, while trends, mainly in the market, are often around for a long time. It is typically safe for businesses to disregard whims, but they should rarely overlook trends, which is not to advise they instantly adopt any emergent trend, but somewhat that they should carefully keep track of them, and accept those that are related to their industry, and that could profit them.
Inside the retail segment, trends arise from how customers buy, what they shop, and how they react to advertising. As ecommerce has grown in fame over the last years, here are big things going to happen in ecommerce and will effect online merchants, with Amazon frequently at the front of trend acceptance. However, you do not have to be an ecommerce giant like Amazon with the intention of adopting many of these trends, and to take advantage of them.
Here are 5 big things going to happen in ecommerce:
Programmatic Marketing
Programmatic marketing, though, uses a far superior set of data when determining on who your ad should be displayed to, and more significantly, which ads to show them. In a nutshell, programmatic marketing is about showing the correct ad to the correct people, at the correct time. Nothing like basic retargeting, with programmatic marketing you stand to reach a far grander audience, since the correct people in above statement are not present customers who have visited your website earlier. Some of them will be customers who have never visited your website, and probably don’t even know about your business until they see your ad.
Marketing Automation
When hearing the phrase, marketing automation, many people instantly think email, but true marketing automation goes beyond email, principally when it comes to ecommerce. For online merchants, marketing automation encompasses into custom-made landing pages, promotions, email marketing and even the suggested products shown to present customers.
This level of personalization and customization used to require a noteworthy investment, limiting it to large vendors with deep pockets. Though, there are now companies who offer managed recommendation solutions that are open to most online retailers, irrespective of size.
Artificial Algorithms
One of the principal challenges in ecommerce, principally when it comes to personalization and automation, is segmenting your customers, and categorizing patterns based on their history. Algorithms can do this for you, but you still need humans to evaluate the outcomes, and to confirm the endorsements that come up.
Mobile Ready
A trend that has been around for some time, but just keeps growing in significance, is that of mobile access. Each major holiday season, and each year, online vendors confirm that the number of dealings that took place on a mobile device are greater than the previous year. We are at a stage – and this trend – where all online merchants should have a fully responsive website that functions the same on mobile devices and computers. But many still do not, or have not even measured it. Having a separate mobile site, or a standalone app, may attract some customers, but only if it still provides them access to your full catalogue. If you limit the product range, then eventually you are limiting your sales.
Better Shipping Options
For many years there weren’t many changes when it came to ecommerce and shipping options. Retailers tried with free shipping, and there were incremental, small enhancements in shipping time. But there was not anything truly troublesome. Until 2013, when increasingly same-day delivery services started to appear – which includes several that used principle of crowdsourced drivers – and larger merchants also began considering delivery via drone. For now, faster delivery via specialized services or crowdsourced drivers remains the most feasible option for most merchants, with drone deliveries still reliant on strict supervisory approval that varies from country to country. The influence of this trend is best clarified by the fact that Amazon has just proclaimed that they are examining the use of crowdsourced delivery agents.
Conclusion
Decades ago, with restricted choice, clients stingily accepted a best effort from online vendors; but as the sum of money and time they spend online has full-grown, so too has their readiness to settle for best effort reduced. Customers have shown that they spend, and respond, when they are treated like persons; when the products that are suggested to them, and the promotions that are offered, seem to be exclusive particularly for them; when they are capable to shop at any time – and making use of almost any device – without skill being different in any way; and when they only have wait hours, in place of days, before the product is sent to them.
Searching ways to adapt, and adopt, these 5 big things going to happen in ecommerce, trends for your own webstore will benefit both you and your customers.
